Idea: Add a "Blacklist" to the *watch Module #231

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2026-10-05T04:06:51+02:00

adam commented

2026-10-05 04:06:51 +02:00

<[Ben]> Idea: Add an ability to *watch so you can prevent certain nicks/hostmasks from triggering it, or a blacklist. The current arrangement works like a whitelist.

add !@* Highlights *%nick%

The aforementioned command would turn the *watch module into a highlight logger. However, it would log every single time one's nick is mentioned, even in cases where you may not care or it's unimportant.

How may this be useful? I can think of a few examples, but mostly in the case of bots:

Trivia bots that are configured to show top players in channel.
Bots that show channel statistics in channel (i.e. !top10, etc.)
Uno, Poker, or any other game bots with similar behavior.
Replies to !seen requests (logging the person doing the seen request is enough)

In those cases, you don't want to use ignore on the bots, because they do serve a useful purpose. You just probably don't care about highlights from them. (and if for some reason you do, this will be all optional)

Someone you may consider annoying, and you don't really care when they highlight you. (Client-side ignore would not hide replies from the *watch module)

SetSources also suffers from a similar problem. You can specify *watch to only check for highlights from specific channels, but there is no way to do "All but these channels."

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<[Ben]> Idea: Add an ability to *watch so you can prevent certain nicks/hostmasks from triggering it, or a blacklist. The current arrangement works like a whitelist. <Ben> add _!_@\* _Highlights *%nick%_ The aforementioned command would turn the *watch module into a highlight logger. However, it would log every single time one's nick is mentioned, even in cases where you may not care or it's unimportant. How may this be useful? I can think of a few examples, but mostly in the case of bots: 1. Trivia bots that are configured to show top players in channel. 2. Bots that show channel statistics in channel (i.e. !top10, etc.) 3. Uno, Poker, or any other game bots with similar behavior. 4. Replies to !seen requests (logging the person doing the seen request is enough) In those cases, you don't want to use ignore on the bots, because they do serve a useful purpose. You just probably don't care about highlights from them. (and if for some reason you do, this will be all optional) 1. Someone you may consider annoying, and you don't really care when they highlight you. (Client-side ignore would not hide replies from the *watch module) SetSources also suffers from a similar problem. You can specify *watch to only check for highlights from specific channels, but there is no way to do "All but these channels." ## <bountysource-plugin> Want to back this issue? **[Post a bounty on it!](https://www.bountysource.com/issues/321239-idea-add-a-blacklist-to-the-watch-module?utm_campaign=plugin&utm_content=tracker%2F1759&utm_medium=issues&utm_source=github)** We accept bounties via [Bountysource](https://www.bountysource.com/?utm_campaign=plugin&utm_content=tracker%2F1759&utm_medium=issues&utm_source=github). </bountysource-plugin>

adam commented

2026-10-05 04:06:52 +02:00

SetSources also suffers from a similar problem. You can specify *watch to only check for highlights from specific channels, but there is no way to do "All but these channels."

In the current version of ZNC you can use

SetSources 1 #* !#unwantedchannel !#otherchannel

which is exactly "All but these channels."

> SetSources also suffers from a similar problem. You can specify *watch to only check for highlights from specific channels, but there is no way to do "All but these channels." In the current version of ZNC you can use ``` SetSources 1 #* !#unwantedchannel !#otherchannel ``` which is exactly "All but these channels."

adam commented

2026-10-05 04:06:52 +02:00

It would be nice if it also had some kind of "smart blacklist" and not show lines which mention more than e.g. five nicks.

It would be nice if it also had some kind of "smart blacklist" and not show lines which mention more than e.g. five nicks.

adam commented

2026-10-05 04:06:53 +02:00

Important addition to my previous comment:

It must be configurable and preferably disabled by default to be able to alert ops who rely on it to get notifications about nickspammers.

Important addition to my previous comment: It must be configurable and preferably disabled by default to be able to alert ops who rely on it to get notifications about nickspammers.

adam commented

2026-10-05 04:06:54 +02:00

I have an infinite loop because of a robot that is watching.
The robot warns me on a trade show when it receives a private message.
The problem is that when I receive the private message from the watch modules the robot says it on the show and starts an infinite loop.

I would like to block watch a specific patern and blacklist a word to be ignored if this word is present.

/msg *watch add Mybot!eggdrop@bot.network.org *Bot-PRIVMSG *[PRIVMSG]*
/msg *watch SetSources 1 #BotLogs

Problematic result:
<%Mybot> [PRIVMSG] *Bot-PRIVMSG@MyNet : <Mybot:#BotLogs> [PRIVMSG] *Bot-PRIVMSG@MyNet : <Mybot:#BotLogs> [PRIVMSG] *Bot-PRIVMSG@MyNet : <Mybot:#BotLogs> [PRIVMSG] *Bot-PRIVMSG@MyNet : <Mybot:#BotLogs> ...

Possible solution resembling SetSources

SetSources also suffers from a similar problem. You can specify *watch to only check for highlights from specific channels, but there is no way to do "All but these channels."

In the current version of ZNC you can use
SetSources 1 #* !#unwantedchannel !#otherchannel
which is exactly "All but these channels."
would be:

/msg *watch add Mybot!eggdrop@bot.network.org *Bot-PRIVMSG *[PRIVMSG]*
/msg *watch add Mybot!eggdrop@bot.network.org *Bot-PRIVMSG !*Bot-PRIVMSG@MyNet*
/msg *watch SetSources 1 #BotLogs

or another solution :

/msg *watch add Mybot!eggdrop@bot.network.org *Bot-PRIVMSG *[PRIVMSG]*
/msg *watch SetSources 1 #BotLogs
/msg *watch SetSkip 1 *Bot-PRIVMSG@MyNet*
<*watch> Adding skip entry: [ *Bot-PRIVMSG@MyNet*] not watching for 1.

I have an infinite loop because of a robot that is watching. The robot warns me on a trade show when it receives a private message. The problem is that when I receive the private message from the watch modules the robot says it on the show and starts an infinite loop. I would like to block watch a specific patern and blacklist a word to be ignored if this word is present. ``` /msg *watch add Mybot!eggdrop@bot.network.org *Bot-PRIVMSG *[PRIVMSG]* /msg *watch SetSources 1 #BotLogs ``` Problematic result: `<%Mybot> [PRIVMSG] *Bot-PRIVMSG@MyNet : <Mybot:#BotLogs> [PRIVMSG] *Bot-PRIVMSG@MyNet : <Mybot:#BotLogs> [PRIVMSG] *Bot-PRIVMSG@MyNet : <Mybot:#BotLogs> [PRIVMSG] *Bot-PRIVMSG@MyNet : <Mybot:#BotLogs> ...` Possible solution resembling SetSources > > SetSources also suffers from a similar problem. You can specify *watch to only check for highlights from specific channels, but there is no way to do "All but these channels." > > In the current version of ZNC you can use > > ``` > SetSources 1 #* !#unwantedchannel !#otherchannel > ``` > > which is exactly "All but these channels." would be: ``` /msg *watch add Mybot!eggdrop@bot.network.org *Bot-PRIVMSG *[PRIVMSG]* /msg *watch add Mybot!eggdrop@bot.network.org *Bot-PRIVMSG !*Bot-PRIVMSG@MyNet* /msg *watch SetSources 1 #BotLogs ``` or another solution : ``` /msg *watch add Mybot!eggdrop@bot.network.org *Bot-PRIVMSG *[PRIVMSG]* /msg *watch SetSources 1 #BotLogs /msg *watch SetSkip 1 *Bot-PRIVMSG@MyNet* <*watch> Adding skip entry: [ *Bot-PRIVMSG@MyNet*] not watching for 1. ```

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Reference: adam/znc#231